PATA Strengthening Ties With Global Partners and Members
PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera shared a message with the PATA community on June 20, 2022, with updates about connecting with PATA’s worldwide partners and members. The full message has been reposted below:
Dear PATA Members and Industry Colleagues,
Like many in our industry, I spent the past month on a multi-purpose, extended travel journey. Rather than hopping back and forth to my home base of Singapore, to save time, money, energy, and reduce my carbon impact, I chose to venture in a single direction around the globe using a myriad of home-based and hospitality-based accommodations. Since I last wrote, my personal travels had brought me to NY for family and PATA meetings. I then had the great opportunity to join Terry Dale, CEO of USTOA, and a small group of global travel sustainability leaders in northern Norway. The trip was an insightful journey to a destination that fully embraces the UN SDGs – a conference that proved to be inspirational, interactive, and educational. Many thanks to Terry Dale for welcoming me as a new industry partner and I look forward to bringing a similar experience to PATA's community of destination leaders as well.
PATA CEO with global Travel Sustainability Leaders in northern Norway.
PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera (left) with USTOA CEO Terry Dale.
My journey continued on to a warm, productive and collegial meeting with UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili in Madrid.
My big thanks to Zurab for so warmly welcoming me in Madrid and his openness to strengthening the partnership and collaboration with PATA. We shared common values and initiatives, and both look forward to magnifying each other's efforts in resilience, sustainability, innovation, equity, and inclusion.
We were immediately able to put our new collaboration in action since Zurab warmly welcomed me to attend and speak this past week at the 34th Asia Pacific Commission in the Maldives, where I had the opportunity to speak on the Ministerial Roundtable on Tourism Resilience through Innovation and Digitalisation. Within this forum, I extended to the UNWTO member network the opportunity to access the PATA Tourism Destination Resilience Programme’s online training modules targeting national, provincial, and local tourism organisations.
Third to left: PATA Chairman Peter Semone; centre: UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili; fifth and sixth to right: Minister of Maldives Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera.
The following day, I also participated in the Community Based Tourism Forum, speaking on their opening panel. Like many destinations, the Maldives is working hard to develop community-based travel experiences with authenticity and creating engaging experiences that can provide livelihoods for more local communities. We had the wonderful opportunity to tour with Minister Mausoom a local island under development and experience their local handicraft techniques, indigenous food products, and traditional games.
My latest travels gave me the opportunity to meet with no less than four PATA Chapters - San Diego, New York, Norway and Bangkok - my thanks to all for the warmth and hospitality extended. The Chapters are a valuable extension of our network and I look forward to finding more ways to drive a stronger connection between PATA International and the Chapter member base.
PATA Team meets with PATA Bangkok Chapter and Thai-based members.
I'll also share today a few updates on our member programmes, I'm pleased to announce the launch of our new Member Benefits programme entitled "For Members, By Members". Tapping into our broad and deep industry network, we are launching member privileges delivered via PATA members including Euromonitor, GoCity, GSTC, and others. Check out all the member-exclusive benefits here: https://www.pata.org/for-pata-members-by-pata-members.
As our first physical PATA conference since the pandemic started, we'll be hosting a PATA Destination Marketing Forum in Songkhla, Thailand from Aug 2 - 4. Take the opportunity to reconnect with industry colleagues, learn best practices in destination marketing and destination management, as well as experience a beautiful, lesser-known destination in Thailand.
And last but not least, we've received great feedback on our new Asia-Pacific Snapshot: Recovery Update Dashboard. It now includes 39 destinations and is updated weekly. Discover the latest marketing openings news on destinations, or simply scan the status across the region - learn the latest good travel destination news in a simple, concise format. We're excited to share the emerging re-openings across Asia-Pacific and continue to share the good news across our network communications…..
